Studio of David Teniers DPG321, DPG341
DPG321 – Chimney-sweep
1650–80; canvas, 67 × 42.9 cm
PROVENANCE
?Evening Mail inventory, 1790–91 (Teniers Room: ‘Winter – Ditto [Teniers]’); List of Pictures to be sold, early 1790s, no. 25 (Study: ‘Teniers – a frost piece with the sweeper’), 5 gs; ?Desenfans sale, 16 June 1794 (Lugt 5226), lot 29 (‘Teniers – The Flemish sweeper winter scene 2 ft. 10 by 2 ft. 2, on canvas’), transaction unknown;1 ?Skinner and Dyke, London, 26 Feb. 1795 (Lugt 5281), lot 95 (‘Teniers – Winter and Summer, a pair’), transaction unknown;2 not in Desenfans 1802;3 Insurance 1804, no. 43 (‘The Chimney Sweeper – Ditto [Teniers]; £50’); Bourgeois, 1807–11; Bourgeois Bequest, 1811; Britton 1813, p. 20, no. 200 (‘Upper Room - West - contd / no. 21, Single figure with cottage &c. “Winter” C[anvas] Teniers’; 3'2" × 2'4").
REFERENCES
Cat. 1817, p. 4, no. 23 (‘FIRST ROOM – West Side; Winter; D. Teniers’); Haydon 1817, p. 372, no. 23 (David Teniers I);4 Cat. 1820, p. 4, no. 23; Cat. 1830, p. 4, no. 18 (David Teniers (II)); Jameson 1842, ii, p. 446, no. 18;5 Denning 1858, no. 18 (David Teniers I); Denning 1859, no. 18 (‘formerly attributed to his son, but the broader, coarser character of the handling proves it to be the work of the Elder Teniers’); Sparkes 1876, p.167, no. 18 (David Teniers I); Richter & Sparkes 1880, p. 161, no. 18 (with no. 44: ‘slight sketches by Teniers the Elder’); Richter & Sparkes 1892 and 1905, p. 90, no. 321; Cook 1914, p. 198;6 Cook 1926, p. 185; Cat. 1953, p. 39 (David Teniers I); Morawińska 1974, p. 42, no. 27; Murray 1980a, p. 301 (Teniers); Beresford 1998, p. 236 (Studio of Teniers); Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, pp. 261, 266; RKD, no. 290427: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/290427 (July 4, 2018).
TECHNICAL NOTES
Plain-weave linen canvas. Warm orange ground. Glue-paste lined; all of the original tacking edges are present, although the sides have been filled and the tacking margins have been incorporated into the front plane of the painting during lining. There is an illegible red seal on the reverse of the lining canvas, which may have originally been comparable to that of Autumn (DPG341). The canvas has a small (mended) vertical tear in the centre, starting in the figure’s hat. The paint film is fairly abraded in the sky, costume and houses. Previous recorded treatment: 1953–5, conserved, Dr Hell; 1980, examined, National Maritime Museum; 1991, consolidated, cleaned and restored, N. Ryder.
RELATED WORKS
1a) David Teniers II, Village in the Snow, monogrammed DT, panel, 23 × 28.5 cm. Private collection, Belgium [1].7
1b) David Teniers II, Chimney-sweep (recto), pencil, 158 × 132 mm. RPK, RM, Amsterdam, RP-T-1898-A-3670(R) [2].8
2a) David Teniers II, Peasant Walking, panel, 26 × 20.5 cm. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Gift of Mrs Herbert Fleishhacker, 45.33.1.9
2b.I) David Teniers II, A Peasant carrying a Rod over his Shoulder, monogrammed DT, mid-1640s, panel, 16 × 12 cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, A 1035a.10 (For its pair see DPG109, Related works, no. 4.)
2b.II) (preparatory drawing for 2b.I) David Teniers II, A Peasant carrying a Long Rod over his Shoulder, graphite, 202 × 154 mm. BM, London, Oo,10.148.11
2b.III) (print after 2b.I) ?Jacques Philippe Le Bas, A Peasant carrying a Long Rod over his Shoulder, 1750s, etching, 267 × 189 mm. BM, London, 2011,7041.1.12
2c) Studio of David Teniers II, A Peasant carrying a Pole, monogrammed DT f , panel, c. 16.8 × 13 cm. Nottingham Castle
Museum and Art Gallery, 1904-109.13
2d) attributed to David Teniers II, The Chimney-sweep, panel, 27 × 16 cm. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Pau (stolen in 1989).14
3) Hendrik Bary (after David Teniers II or Adriaen Brouwer?), Chimney-sweeper, engraving, 231 × 128 mm. RPK, RM, Amsterdam, RP-P-BI-644 [3].15
4) Charles Levasseur after David Teniers II, Le Frilleux [sic] (the chilly man: old bearded man, with fur hat and fur-trimmed coat, carrying brasier and stick), 1749–97, etching and engraving, 265 × 195 mm. BM, London, 1850,0713.151 [4].16
A single figure hunched against the cold is walking to the right across a wintry landscape. Over his left shoulder he carries a long stick, the tool of a chimney-sweep. In the background are two houses. The picture has been seen as depicting Winter and sometimes paired with DPG341, thought to represent Autumn; but the pair to Winter would be Summer, and if the two pictures did represent those two seasons, the other two seasons would be missing. Desenfans owned a set of Four Seasons in 1802, but with a different Winter – an old man ‘dressed in fur, leaning with one hand, upon his stick, and holding in the other, a foot stove’:17 cf. an 18th-century print after Teniers (Related works, no. 4) [4]. He saw DPG321 and 341 not as seasons but as personifications of types of labourers: in the 1804 insurance list they are called ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ and ‘The Landlord’ and valued separately at £50. Later, however, the two pictures seem to have been made into a false pair: recent conservation revealed that the canvas of DPG321 had been extended on both sides to make it match the dimensions of DPG341. Bourgeois is the probable culprit (as with the false pairing of DPG76 and DPG95). It is unlikely that Teniers intended DPG321 to be a personification of Winter: rather, it is an independent genre scene, reflecting his interest in setting single figures in a landscape, where they could also illustrate different series, such as the Five Senses.
A preparatory sketch of a chimney-sweep by Teniers in Amsterdam (Related works, no. 1b) [2] seems to be not for DPG321 but for a winter scene in a Belgian private collection (Related works, no. 1a) [1]. Similar figures in a less wintry context appear in a number of other paintings by Teniers (Related works, nos 2a–2d). Chimney-sweeps could sometimes have an erotic connotation,18 as seems to be the case of a print after Teniers or Adriaen Brouwer (?) (Related works, no. 3) [3], but that is most probably not the case with DPG321.
DPG321
studio of David Teniers (II)
Chimney-sweeper, c. 1650-1680
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery, inv./cat.nr. DPG321
1
David Teniers (II)
Village in the Snow
Private collection
2
David Teniers (II)
Chimney-sweep
Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, inv./cat.nr. RP-T-1898-A-3670(R)
3
Hendrik Bary after David Teniers (II) published by Claes Jansz. Visscher
Chimney-sweeper
Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, inv./cat.nr. RP-P-BI-644
4
Jean Charles Le Vasseur after David Teniers (II)
Winter
London (England), British Museum, inv./cat.nr. 1850,0713.151
Studio of David Teniers II
DPG341 – Autumn/The Landlord
17th century; canvas, 67 × 42.9 cm
PROVENANCE
Evening Mail inventory, 1790–91 (Teniers Room: ‘The Jolly Landlord – Ditto [Teniers]’); List of Pictures to be sold, early 1790s, no. 31 (Study: ‘Teniers – the Landlord’); ?Desenfans sale, 16 June 1794 (Lugt 5226), lot 27 (‘The jolly landlord 2 ft. 10 by 2 ft. 2, on canvas’);19 ?Skinner and Dyke, 26 Feb. 1795 (Lugt 5281), lot 95 (‘Teniers – Winter and Summer, a pair’), transaction unknown;20 not in Desenfans 1802;21 Insurance 1804, no. 42 (‘The Landlord – Teniers . £50’); Bourgeois Bequest, 1811; Britton 1813, p. 20, no. 203 (‘Upper Room - West - contd / no. 24, Single figure, a hot ground &c “Summer” (comp. to 21 [= DPG321]) C[anvas] Teniers’; 3'2" × 2'4").
REFERENCES
Cat. 1817, p. 4, no. 27 (‘FIRST ROOM – West Side; A Man at a Cottage-Door with a Jug of Ale; D. Teniers’); Haydon 1817, p. 372, no. 27 (David Teniers I);22 Cat. 1820, p. 4, no. 27; Patmore 1824b, p. 25, no. 41;23 Cat. 1830, p. 4, no. 44; Jameson 1842, ii, p. 450, no. 44; Denning 1858, no. 44 (David Teniers I); Denning 1859, no. 44; Sparkes 1876, p. 168, no. 44;24 Richter & Sparkes 1880, p. 161, no. 44 (slight sketches by Teniers the Elder; see also DPG321); Richter & Sparkes 1892 and 1905, p. 94, no. 341; Cook 1914, p. 206; Cook 1926, p. 192, no. 341; Cat. 1953, p. 39 (David Teniers I); Morawińska 1974, p. 42, no. 28 (wrongly as DPG241); Murray 1980a, p. 301 (Teniers); Beresford 1998, p. 236 (Studio of Teniers); Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, pp. 262, 266; RKD, no. 290428: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/290428 (July 5, 2018).
TECHNICAL NOTES
Plain-weave linen canvas. Grey ground. Glue-paste lined; the original tacking edges are present and the left margin has been lined, filled and retouched in order to widen the painting. There appears to be a vertical fold or join just in from the left side. On the reverse of the lining canvas there is a seal with the letters ‘B.F.G.’, crossed torches (?) and a crown. The paint is in fair condition, although the red lake of the tunic appears to have faded despite being rather thickly painted. The paint surface is abraded on the tops of the canvas weave in some areas, particularly in the sky, and in places the ground shows through. Previous recorded treatment: 1936, stretcher treated with wax and many old wormholes noted; 1953–5, conserved, Dr Hell; 1990, stretcher keys secured, P. Abrahams; 1996, cleaned and retouched, S. Plender.
RELATED WORKS
1) David Teniers II, Autumn (one of the Four Seasons), monogrammed DT.F, c. 1644, copper, 22.1 × 16.4 cm. NG, London, NG859 [5].25
2a. David Teniers II, A Jolly Toper, monogrammed DT f., panel, 17.5 × 12.4 cm. Present whereabouts unknown (Christie’s, 20 July 1990, lot 115) [6].
2b. (copy of 2a?) David Teniers II, Autumn (one of the Four Seasons). Present whereabouts unknown (Fiévez sale, Brussels, 8 April 1930, lot 124).
3a. (study for 2a?) David Teniers II, Peasant raising a Glass of Wine (Autumn?), c. 1644, graphite pencil on discoloured laid paper, 202 × 153 mm. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, William H. Murphy Fund, 1938.20 [7].26
3b. David Teniers II, Autumn, panel, 16 × 12 cm. Present whereabouts unknown (Gallery De Jonckheere, Brussels, 1991, no. 35).
4a. David Teniers II, Taste (as one of the Five Senses), monogrammed, copper, 8.5 × 6 cm. Present whereabouts unknown (David Koetser Gallery, Zurich, 1982).27
4b. Studio of David Teniers II, Seller of Vodka (?), panel, 25.7 × 19.6 cm. Lanckoroński collection, Warsaw, ZKW 3918.28
4c. Jacques-Philippe Le Bas after David Teniers II, Taste (one of the Five Senses): a pedlar carrying a basket hung round his neck selling drinks, 1736, etching, 190 (trimmed) × 114 mm. BM, London, 1850,0713.41 [8].29
Teniers produced several sets of pictures on the theme of the seasons, and in these Autumn is usually represented by a toper, as here. Similar figures can be seen in a set in the National Gallery, London (Related works, no. 1) [5], and in another set at auction in Brussels in 1930 (Related works, no. 2b); related to the latter is a painting at auction in London in 1990 (Related works, no. 2a) [6]. The description of Autumn in the Desenfans catalogue (as part of the set of the Four Seasons in his 1802 sale) sounds very much like the two Autumn pictures at auction in 1930 and 1990.30 In these groups the other seasons are personified consistently: Spring is shown as a gardener carrying a tree to plant, Summer as a peasant in a field, and Winter as an old man. A drawing in Detroit shows a similar man with glass and jug, but in reverse, and without the vine leaves (Related works, no. 3a) [7].
Another possibility is that DPG341 is meant to represent Taste, as one of the Five Senses, of which Teniers also painted sets. In that case Taste is often depicted as a drinker with a glass and a bottle (Related works, no. 4a), but sometimes as a man with a basket round his neck, selling bottles (Related works, no. 4c) [8].
As noted in the entry for DPG321, the Chimney-sweep, it seems likely that the two pictures were not originally paired; presumably they entered Desenfans’ collection separately.
DPG341
studio of David Teniers (II)
Autumn, 1625-1690
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery, inv./cat.nr. DPG341
5
David Teniers (II)
Standing peasant with wine jug and lifted glass (Autumn), c. 1644
London (England), National Gallery (London), inv./cat.nr. NG859
6
David Teniers (II)
Jolly Toper (Autumn)
7
David Teniers (II)
Standing peasant with wine jug and raised glass (Autumn), c. 1644
Detroit (Michigan), Detroit Institute of Arts, inv./cat.nr. 1938.20
8
Jacques-Philippe Le Bas after David Teniers (II)
Taste: a pedlar carrying a basket hung round his neck selling drinks, dated 1736
London (England), British Museum, inv./cat.nr. 1850,0713.41
Notes
1 GPID (12 Jan. 2014).
2 ibid.
3 Desenfans 1802, ii, pp. 44–5, no. 96 (the Four Seasons): ‘The fourth, as winter, shews us, an old man, suffering from cold in a country where the snow is falling. He is dressed in fur, leaning with one hand, upon his stick, and holding in the other, a foot stove. On one side are men skaiting, and at a distance, a village covered with snow. On pannel.’ See also note 30 (Spring and Summer) and note 21 (Autumn). Handwritten note in RKD version of the catalogue: ‘8 h. 6 P.’, i.e. the pictures were on panel, 8 inches high by 6 inches wide.
4 ‘David Teniers the elder. Winter Scene, Peasant returning from Labour. There were originally four of these pictures; of which there are only two in this Collection; this, the Winter, and No. 27, the Autumn.’
5 ‘An early, coarse picture of the master – if genuine.’
6 ‘This and No. 341 (“Autumn”) formed part of a series of the Four Seasons, which was No. 96 in Desenfans’s Catalogue of 1802. Compare the series by the younger Teniers in the National Gallery, Nos. 857–860.’
7 RKD, no. 290572: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/290572 (July 11, 2018); Klinge 1991, pp. 72–3, no. 18.
8 RKD, no. 290484: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/290484 (July 5, 2018); Klinge 1991, p. 303, no. 112 and p. 72 (fig. 18a), under no. 18 (Related works, no 1a).
9 Vlieghe 2011, p. 194 (fig. 60).
10 Casley, Harrison & Whiteley 2004, p. 221; White 1999a, pp. 152–3, no. A 1035a.
11 https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_Oo-10-148 (May 20, 2020).
12 https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_2011-7041-1 (May 20, 2020).
13 https://www.vads.ac.uk/digital/collection/NIRP/id/26565/rec/3 (Jan. 17, 2021; R. Virag); Wright 1999, pp. 84–5, 203.
14 Faroult 2007, pp. 417–18, no. M.I. 999 (L. Bolle).
15 RKD, no. 290485: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/290485 (July 5, 2018), Ackermann 1993, p. 67, fig. 65b; see also BM, London, S.4281: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_Sheepshanks-4281 (May 20, 2020); email from Olenka Horbatsch of the BM to Ellinoor Bergvelt, 18 July 2018 (DPG321 file): ‘The verso of the print has “A Brouwer” written in pencil by a former curator of the museum. […] we have not been able to identify the handwriting. […] I have changed our record to clarify why we think it might be after Brouwer, although this is certainly not conclusive or definitive.’
16 RKD, no. 290486: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/290486 (July 5, 2018); see also https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1850-0713-151 (May 20, 2020).
17 See note 3.
18 Ackermann 1993, p. 67, fig. 42 [sic; meant is fig. 65b].
19 GPID (12 Jan. 2014).
20 ibid.
21 Desenfans 1802, ii, pp. 43–5, no. 96 (The Four Seasons): ‘The third, to represent autumn, is a man near a few barrels, upon which are some grapes. He is crowned with vine leaves, a bottle of wine in one hand, and a glass in the other: at a distance is a vineyard, where men are gathering grapes.’ See note 3 (Winter) and note 30 (Spring and Summer).
22 ‘David Teniers the elder. Man at a Cottage Door, with a jug of Ale. Companion to No. 22 [sic; should be No. 23 = DPG321]. The man is exulting at the success of the hop harvest: his brows are encircled with a wreath of this bacchanalian plant. A garland of the same is hanging from a window; several beer casks form the fore-ground, and a hop plantation with people gathering them, the distance.’
23 ‘This, also, is a highly spirited and characteristic little work. It represents a single figure, at the door of an alehouse, holding up a cup of drink with a truly bacchanalian air. There is “tipsy dance and revelry” in every feature. He has a wreath of vine-leaves on his head; another is hung up at the door of the house ; and these, together with the aspect of a distant vineyard, proclaim that the season is at hand when all classes are, for once in the year, allowed to “be merry and (not) wise.”’
24 This picture was called Autumn. No. 18, ante, was the Winter; and these two, together with Spring and Summer, were No. 96 in the Desenfans’ Catalogue.’
25 RKD, no. 112297: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/112297 (July 4, 2018); see also https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/david-teniers-the-younger-autumn (July 4, 2018); Martin 1970, pp. 259–61, no. 859 (part of a series of the Four Seasons: the other nos are 857 (Spring), 858 (Summer) and 860 (Winter). Martin also mentions several other series, but none is 8 inches high by 6 inches wide (on panel), the dimensions of the Desenfans series offered for sale in 1802 (see notes 3 (Winter), 30 (Spring and Summer) and 21 (Autumn), according to the handwritten note in the RKD version of the catalogue.
26 RKD, no. 106464: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/106464 (July 4, 2018); see also https://www.dia.org/art/collection/object/peasant-raising-glass-wine-63293 (July 4, 2018).
27 Klinge 1982, pp. 140–41, no. 54 (the set).
28 Juszczak & Małachowicz 1998, pp. 68–70, no. 21.
29 RKD, no. 290487: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/290487 (July 5, 2018); see also https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1850-0713-41 (May 20, 2020).
30 Desenfans 1802, ii, pp. 43–5, no. 96 (The Four Seasons) ‘The first represents the spring, under the figure of a gardener, who is carrying in a pot of earth, an orange tree in flower; at a distance is seen a building in a parterre, where other gardeners are at work. The second offers us, summer under the figure of a reaper, who holds a scythe; and the distance, a field of corn, where numbers of men and women are gathering in the harvest.’ Nina Cahill, curatorial volunteer at DPG, noticed in Jan. 2015 that the description fits the series offered for sale at Christie’s, Amsterdam (sale 3021), 20 Nov. 2012, lot 26 (Provenance: Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 26 April 1950, lot 115 (£ 270 to Leonard Koetser, London), with P. de Boer, Amsterdam. See http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/david-teniers-ii-an-allegory-of-the-5619871-details.aspx#top (April 2, 2015) and RKD, no. 290677: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/290677 (May 24, 2020); for Spring of this series see RKD, no. 290678: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/290678 (May 24, 2020). According to this Christie’s lot entry there are at least three comparable series, and one series by a follower of Teniers. See for Autumn note 21; for Winter note 3.